It’s marred and unseemly… but it still functions.
These words will haunt me for awhile. When I got up at 4:30, I really didn’t want to get moving. But my life has mission and purpose. So I got up and got prepared for the morning commute.
Everything was progressing to plan until I went to disconnect my phone from the charger. Alas, there was no phone there. I worried that I might have left the phone at Cheddars last night. But I dismissed that thought and proceeded to hunt the phone down. I called my mobile phone from the house phone. After three or four rings, I heard the phone vibrating. I chased down the sound.
When I found the phone, I was disheartened. The phone was in my wife’s chair in the family room. The protective case was utterly destroyed. And the phone itself has scratches and bite marks. Apparently, my 19 year old son’s 75 pound puppy had decided that my phone was a chew toy. He had disconnected my smartphone from the wall and carried it to the family room while I was asleep.
I was furious. Since everyone else was asleep, I restrained the urge to utter a primal scream. I settled myself and finished preparing for the morning commute. Then I hit the road, I was white hot. And that’s when God began to speak to my heart.
I wanted to rage. He calmed my heart. I wanted to punish the puppy. God reminded me that the puppy didn’t know any better. I wanted to have harsh words with my son. God reminded me that my son is a lot like the puppy… a whole lot like the puppy.
I was finally cooling down a bit. I then started to think about replacing the phone. My anger swelled. Then I thought about cool new replacements. And that’s when the real lesson began. Yes, the phone was blemished. And there are some serious teeth marks on the speaker grill. But the phone works. After all, I’m typing this, aren’t I?
God then spoke even more clearly: I am the phone. I was made with a purpose. And in my “as built” state, I was sleek and beautiful. Then I entered this fallen world. And the world wantonly ripped me from my purpose. It chewed me up. It marred my image of myself. But it didn’t alter my purpose. Nor has it prevented me from fulfilling that purpose. God will still use me to accomplish His purposes – despite the scratches and bite marks found throughout my soul.
Friends, don’t let your daily concerns rob you of the joy that can be found when fulfilling your God-ordained purpose. You WILL be marred and bruised. But your purpose remains. Go forth with joy as you discover and fulfill your purpose.
-Roo
Category: Technology
Spotify @ Home
The social networks have been aglow with the news that Spotify has jumped the pond. It is being hailed as the closest thing to the second coming of the musical messiah. Indeed, some predict that Spotify will finally bring profitability to an otherwise flagging digital music market.
I don’t know about all of that. I sure hope that Spotify will prompt people to listen to and purchase even more music. What the world needs is a little more music and a whole lot less hostility. And from my vantage point, I am glad to see the blokes back east sending us some of their social music love.
This spring, I’ve really focused 0n my streaming music experience. Between Amazon Cloud Drive and Google Music, I have been able to stream all of my music wherever I go. I can access my library at home and at work. I even played a bunch of wedding music as we set up the venue for Meredith’s wedding this past May.
And I’ve done a whole lot of cleanup of my digital library. I’ve gone back and purchased a lot of music that I once had in other formats (including vinyl, eight-track and cassette tapes). While I have chaffed at this since I did pay for the music once before, I have decided that I really want my favorite artists to see even more residuals from the music that they gave to me in my youth.
But that’s a different story. I am writing this post to describe what I’ve seen in the most recent tool to hit the American digital music industry: Spotify.
When all of my friends gushed about being able to stream music to their phones, I just yawned as they waxed positively poetic about Spotify. It sure sounded like it could do everything that I was already doing. So when I finally got my Spotify invite last week, I looked long and hard at the mobile experience and the streaming experience. And I quickly confirmed that Spotify wouldn’t offer me anything new in my streaming experience. So I set Spotify aside for a couple of days.
I finally got back to evaluating Spotify late last night. This time, I focused on the social music experience. And I must admit that the social side of Spotify is positively beautiful. You can scrobble to Last. fm. And you can post to Twitter and Facebook. I can’t wait until there is an interface for Goggle+. But until then, I am happily impressed with the ability to share my thoughts on music that I listen to.
Nevertheless, I am fairly confident that the real lynch pin of Spotify’s long-term success is not its basic capabilities. Rather, its success will be due to its ability to create and leverage music communities. Indeed, its playlist sharing capabilities may well be the real reason that Spotify will flourish her in the United States.
I can easily find dozens of playlists for the kind of music that I listen to. And I can easily find related music that is well worth checking out. For example, I found a great site that has all kinds of Christian music playlists. It is SpotifyforLife. This site is dedicated to the very music that I want to listen to. And it is stunningly simple to start listening to great mixes of favored and favorable music. Finally, I can easily connect with other people that truly love the same kinds of music that I love.
As for the Spotify music tool itself, I am singularly unimpressed by the UI. Don’t get me wrong. The UI is crisp and clean. But with dozens of good players already on the market, I can’t get too excited about the player experience.
So what is my summary assessment?
– Player and desktop experience = Acceptable
– Player and mobile experience = Underwhelming
– Streaming capabilities = Acceptable on the desktop but unacceptable (and expensive) on mobile devices
– Social capabiliies = Way above expectations – especially due to the incredibly active user communities that Spotify has spawned
I heartily recommend the free version of the tool. However, I cannot recommend the premium versions because you can get a better streaming experience for free from other products. But if you have become hooked on the social networking promises inherent in digital music, then you will be thrilled by this British import.
-Roo
A New Market Is On The Horizon
Just when you thought Google’s plate was too full (with Gingerbread/Honeycomb, Google Music and Google+), it looks like the Android team is sprucing up the Market a bit.
The snapshots above were taken from my phone on the new Market. The functionality is almost the same as it was before. But the look and feel seems vastly improved. More importantly, there are hints about new things on the horizon. In particular, there appears to be a movie rental option that may soon arrive in the Market.
But from my vantage point, I’m just satisfied with a Market that works when I need it. In the past, I’ve relied upon the Market to rebuild my system whenever I’ve had to do a clean install of Android. In fact, I just have to point a newly pressed image at the Market and let my phone build from there. It is seamless and nearly faultless. Sure it takes some time to rebuild. But the feature is well worth the wait.
Now, the Market also looks great as well. My only concern is that the newer images will require a great deal more downloading and file transfers. I sure hope that you aren’t paying for all the new graphics that Google is now pushing at you.
-Roo
Naming Your Phone Ain't Easy
This week has been hectic at work and hectic at home. When there weren’t too many things to be done, there were hugely important little things that needed to be addressed.
This ain’t either one of those! 🙂
Like a lot of other geeks and music freaks, I’ve been fiddling with Spotify. I’ll post a full review of Spotify sometime this weekend – along with a more complete review of Google+. But I saw some things when I installed Spotify that made me address a long-standing challenge I have with Android. Specifically, Spotify allows you to sync your music to your mobile devices based upon the host names that your mobile devices present to your WiFi infrastructure. But Android doesn’t provide useful names for your phone.
In fact, the name that most Android phones provide is positively hideous. It usually takes the form of Android + <hexadecimal character string>. And when you have three or more Android phones connecting to your WiFi router, this kind of naming is impossible to manage. Like most folks, I prefer seeing a name that is customer-selected.
So I began the great Google quest. I found out where the odd name comes from. I also found a means of changing that name via a command shell and rot privileges. I even found an app that will change the name – but it is only effective until the next reboot of the phone. Finally, I realized that I could change the name on my home network by updating the DHCP tables on the router itself.
So I can affect the change that I desire (see above). But it sure would be nice if Google (and the Android community) would update the core OS to allow for customer-selected host names. That way, the platform will be even more manageable for the average user.
-Roo
Naming Your Phone Ain’t Easy
This week has been hectic at work and hectic at home. When there weren’t too many things to be done, there were hugely important little things that needed to be addressed.
This ain’t either one of those! 🙂
Like a lot of other geeks and music freaks, I’ve been fiddling with Spotify. I’ll post a full review of Spotify sometime this weekend – along with a more complete review of Google+. But I saw some things when I installed Spotify that made me address a long-standing challenge I have with Android. Specifically, Spotify allows you to sync your music to your mobile devices based upon the host names that your mobile devices present to your WiFi infrastructure. But Android doesn’t provide useful names for your phone.
In fact, the name that most Android phones provide is positively hideous. It usually takes the form of Android + <hexadecimal character string>. And when you have three or more Android phones connecting to your WiFi router, this kind of naming is impossible to manage. Like most folks, I prefer seeing a name that is customer-selected.
So I began the great Google quest. I found out where the odd name comes from. I also found a means of changing that name via a command shell and rot privileges. I even found an app that will change the name – but it is only effective until the next reboot of the phone. Finally, I realized that I could change the name on my home network by updating the DHCP tables on the router itself.
So I can affect the change that I desire (see above). But it sure would be nice if Google (and the Android community) would update the core OS to allow for customer-selected host names. That way, the platform will be even more manageable for the average user.
-Roo
Google+ Is Changing The Way I Blog
Google+ is already affecting the way that I blog – at least, a little bit. I really want people to be able to use +1 for my blog posts. And I didn’t see the GetSocial folks solving this issue any time soon. So I started to look around and see if there was any native way to accomplish the same thing.
Fortunately, the folks at WordPress are now including +1 as part of their sharing options. So I’ve activated the new sharing options and I’ve edited posts for July to eliminate the GetSocial code. The new sharing options are neater. And they include only a few options (i.e., +1, Twitter and Facebook).
In addition, I’ve decided to clean up some of my publishing options. In the past, I had Friendfeed sucking in all of my events and posting content notices to Twitter and Facebook. Since WordPress can publish these notices for you, I have decided to abandon Friendfeed (i.e., Facebook) as the publishing agency for my blog. This should make for a cleaner transition all the way around.
With these changes, I may be able to post more frequently. I certainly won’t have to insert canned code into every post. Therefore, I can use my phone to post most of the content I might otherwise have ignored. Maybe there will even be a few more posts from me. I certainly hope so.
-Roo
Google+ Comes Crashing Into Chez Roo
I’ve been hearing the buzz about Google+ for months. It has been the subject of many tech conversations for quite some time. But I’ve been way too busy with weddings and work. So Google+ has taken a back seat at our home. But that ended yesterday.
A few of my friends saw a plaintive lament for an invite. Within thirty minutes, I had a slew of invitations in my email. So thank to everyone who saw fit to share with me. As of yesterday, I’ve waded into the stream.
So what are my first thoughts? That’s such a tough question. I really loved Google Wave. And since I have been using Google Mail and Google Reader since their inception, I had no trouble getting aboard the Buzz bus. But Buzz didn’t get any real traction. I think that this was because Wave was focused on the act of collaboration and Buzz was focused primarily upon the content. But Facebook (and Friendfeed) were always focused on friends. And contact/friend management is the real key to social media finesse. Twitter and Facebook were always focused upon making and contacting friends.
After a few days with Google+, I think that they may have finally gotten the message. Google+ seems to be about you an your friends. The lame code word for this is Google+ Circles. I don’t like the analogy – although I do like the reference to the same meme in the Meet the Parents movies. Creating clusters of community is really important. I have so many subsets of friends. Some love cycling and some hate cycling. Some love tech while others just use tech. Some love politics while others shun them. Like most people, I have groups that can and must be dealt with independently. And Google+ gets this right. Now that they have finally spent some time focusing on the people aspects of community, they may just get some traction.
But as a tech enthusiast, I must admit that there are some very cool touches that have piqued my interest.
First, there is excellent integration with Android. I love the Android app. And it looks just like the web experience. You can see your own posts…
your entire stream…
and all the notifications that come your way while you are out and about. 
As the platform matures, I am sure that location-based services will start to flourish. But the cool part is that you won’t have to wait for Google to build these cool new features. Android is open. So you can and should be seeing all sorts of cool phone-based elements from developers near you.
And the desktop will also see some cool integration. Most of Google+ is accessible via Javascript. So extensions are not just limited to Android. I have had a great deal of fun selecting and integrating Chrome extensions into my browser. The coolest of these are the Push Contacts extension and the Surplus extension. Both of these extensions deserve their own post/review. But for now, take my advice and install them into your Chrome browser as soon as possible. They will make your Google+ experience even more pleasing.
But despite all the really cool possibilities that this platform portends, you do need to realize that this is still a beta – albeit a Google beta. One of the biggest shortcomings is the lack of integration with Google Reader – coupled with a complete abandonment of RSS as a content source. This is so incredibly important for me because I share so much content via Google Reader.
And I would really love to see some kind of integration with RSS and enclosures – especially audio content inclusion (like podcasts).
But for a first release (assuming you don’t include Wave and Buzz as early versions), then Google+ may well be able to attack the Zuckerberg monolith – and survive. Let’s hope so. And let’s hope that the DoJ keeps its ruddy mitts off of this conflict. True competition will yield real improvements in our social infrastructure.
-Roo
Making Your Phone YOUR Phone
After waiting a very long time for Verizon to release a Gingerbread ROM for my Droid 2 phone, I started hearing that this might not happen until the third or fourth quarter of the year – if ever. I appreciate Verizon’s position. They want to ensure that their new Android devices (with Gingerbread or Honeycomb) have the best features. And if previously existing phones get updates, then there is less “incentive” for customers to upgrade to the “new” phones.
I understand the sentiment inherent in Verizon’s approach (and their public statements). But as a tech savvy customer, I really despise being treated like a rebel. I bought an Android phone so that I could customize my own wireless experience. I bought an Android phone to have access to the broadest range of applications. I didn’t buy this phone to ensure the hegemony of Verizon.
Consequently, I chose to root my phone. Then I chose to upgrade my phone to a custom ROM (i.e., Liberty). And I was supremely excited when Google released Gingerbread (and the SDK) late last year. But I have waited to take the plunge and install a Gingerbread-based ROM. First, Gingerbread ROMs were very immature. Second, I really wanted to have a ROM based upon the vendor builds. A few months ago, I got excited that there was a leak of Verizon’s D2 Gingerbread build. But that leak has not been followed by a general release. So I waited.
Since the leak earlier this year, there has been a lot of growth. There are numerous Gingerbread builds for the D2. And the folks on the Liberty team have been working on their new build. As of this week, Liberty Gingerbread (a.k.a., LGB) is now at v0.8. With this latest release, stability has increased. And performance is always improving.
So after a lot of hesitancy (and a wedding or two), I’ve finally decided to tae the plunge. I am now running on LGB v0.8. So what did it take to get from Liberty 2.0.1 to the latest build? Here was what I did:
- As a first step, I needed to deploy a Gingerbread build so that I could be on the new Linux kernel. I followed the recommendation found here and grabbed the ‘monster leak’ file. With a great deal of hesitancy, I flashed the revised kernel (wiping the system and cache) – and crossed my fingers. The result was a very vanilla build. But I was now on the right kernel.
- Once I had the right base, I then re-downloaded the ‘donate’ version of the Liberty Toolbox. From within this tool, I was able to download and flash the new bits for Liberty 0.8.
- My first thoughts about the new build were “wow” and “this thing sucks major power.” So I decided to get to work. The first order of business was to get all of my apps installed onto the new system. I could have used Titanium Backup. It is an awesome tool. But I chose to see how the base Android Market app would do on a Gingerbread ROM. For the most part, I was satisfied that my apps were recovered. But a few key apps didn’t get restored. I’m still researching why this was the case. But I now have all of my apps restored.
- On Liberty 2.0.1, I used Advanced Task Killer to keep my system clean. But since I am now on a new kernel, I want to ensure that I test the base memory management capabilities of Gingerbread. Therefore, I uninstalled ATK. It may find it’s way back onto the phone at some point. But for now, I’m living with the base OS task management.
- Since I was already seeing some battery issues, I decided that I would enable Juice Defender. I had purchased Juice Defender Ultimate. But was disappointed to learn that the Ultimate version didn’t work on Gingerbread. But the basic program did work fine. So I now have a good battery management tool that is helping to deal with battery management.
- The overall look and feel of the new LGB ROM is great. But if I was going to rock a new ROM, I really wanted to make it look fantastic. So I downloaded a new theme (GingerComb Juiced). I also paid for the Beautiful Widgets pack. I really love the widgets in this package. So I now have a “killer look” to my fresh new system.
- I rounded out the effort by switching to LauncherPro Plus. The New Liberty Launcher is good. But I have grown so accustomed to LauncherPro that I decided to replace the default launcher.
So what is the result of all of these changes? First, my phone looks great.
Second, my phone appears to be operating well with reasonable task, memory and battery management. But time will tell on this front. Finally, I have stuck my finger in Lord Farquaad’s eye (i.e., Verizon). This phone is mine. Yes, I respect Verizon’s right to deny me support. But they can never take my freedom!
-Roo
WordPress Updates Its Commenting Engine
Earlier this week, I got an email from WordPress about changes to their commenting system. Basically, they’ve opened up commenting to Facebook and Twitter accounts. That means that you can read your favorite blogs and comment without creating a WordPress account (or without commenting anonymously).
This is a tremendously simple change. And it is a tacit admission that federated identity is not quite there yet. That’s too bad. I had hoped that open and reliable identity management would already be available by now. But as a blogger, I welcome having a reliable source of information about the identity of my readership.
And I expect that this capability will soon be followed by Facebook “like” capabilities.
-Roo
Platform Pivot Possibilities
Anyone who has read my musings before already knows that I have loved technology for a very long time. You are also aware that I’ve used many different forms and flavors of technology. The list of operating systems is quite long. On the server side, I’ve used: Univac Exec 8, IBM MVS, IBM VM/ESA, IBM MVS/ESA, IBM z/OS, SunOS, Solaris, Irix, DG-UX, HP-UX, IBM AIX, Windows NT, Win2K(x), Linux and a host of other platforms. On the desktop, I’ve used: CPM, UCSD Pascal, HDOS, MS-DOS, PC-DOS, Windows (many flavors), MacOS (many flavors), Xenix, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Linux (many flavors) and a plethora of experimental OSes.
As you look at this list, you have to be thinking a few things:
- Roo is really old,
- Roo is fickle,
- Roo has been through a lot of tech transitions, and
- Roo is really, really old
So why would I recite this list? Am I building a new resume? [No, I’m not.] Am I a preening, arrogant technology elitist? [Yes, I am. But that’s not the reason I recorded the list.] I wrote the list because I’m becoming convinced that it is time for yet another technology pivot.
There are some big trends that are becoming absolutely obvious:
- Computing technology is for everyone. So it must necessarily be simple and bullet-proof. Over the past three years, I have deployed more “appliance” devices at home than I have deployed computers. Yes the appliances are computers. But for the average consumer, they are plug and play functionality. This includes: set top boxes, wireless routers, wireless extenders, wireless printers, wireless cameras, wireless phones, wireless monitoring systems, etc.
- Everything is becoming mobile. Computers are getting smaller. They are embedded in everything (including my heart). And they are increasingly becoming disconnected from fixed structures (like an office or a home).
- We are finally starting to see new user interfaces. Just as the keyboard was displaced by the mouse, the mouse is now being displaced by human touch. Haven’t we had pen computing for almost a decade? Yes, we have. But the iPhone made touch computing ubiquitous. More importantly, touch is not the only new user interface. Speech recognition is becoming ubiquitous as well. I can now talk to my phone and place calls (or write emails). I can now talk to my car (or its GPS) and get driving directions. With speech and touch replacing the hands and fingers that were tethered to a swivel chair, we are accelerating the move towards mobility.
- Retail purchasing and provisioning are finally reducing the need to go to the store. It is very possible to sit in your chair at home and order anything for delivery right to your door. I won’t go into the moral impacts of promoting such sedentary lives. But I do think that this change is transforming the way that we live – and the computer systems that we utilize.
These trends (and a few other minor trends) are allowing new competitors to jump into prominent positions. And these changes are putting strains on older competitors.
The big boys do see these trends. Microsoft recognizes these changes. And I think that they are trying to compete in these spaces. But their corporate identity (based on sales pros getting commissions) is becoming outdated. Their corporate ethos allowed them to miss the entire music resurgence that Apple inspired. Sure, Microsoft is now in that business. But not before Apple seized the entire market. The Zune is cool. And the Zune market is feature-complete. But the battle was lost because Microsoft was trying to protect their existing channel model.
The Microsoft phone strategy has been equally anemic. They did indeed recognize the mobility trend. But Windows Mobile was incomplete and clunky. Can WP7 and its successors thrive? Uh, using the number ‘7’ in your name won’t repeat the Windows 7 success. Did Microsoft have a chance? Yes. Can they seize market from both Google and Apple? Sure, but they are taking table scraps from their competitors. And their corporate heritage is holding them back. Android has succeeded because it is repeating Microsoft’s PC success: Google has built an open platform.
Microsoft isn’t the only company at a crossroads. Apple is also at a crossroads. Their model of retail purchase via iTunes and delivery to a desktop device is now under assault. The iTunes infrastructure has always used the desktop as the hub of your music experience. But staying with that model would be like staying with high-end audio equipment. Sure, some audiophiles still have a stylus and all of their other component gear. But component audio was replaced by compact discs and then by PC audio.
The new model is to buy the rights to the music and to store the music remotely. This allows you to access your content anytime and anywhere. You don’t have to be at your desktop. You don’t have to stream from that same desktop. And you don’t have to sync with that desktop. You store your licensed content in the “cloud” and then stream it to wherever you want to play it. For me, this meant that I could stream some cool music to Meredith’s outdoor wedding site while we decorated that site. It also means that I can have my entire library available while I’m at work or in the car or on my bike.
And as of this morning, I’ve now switched all of my podcast content from my desktop (and iTunes) to my mobile device. I’m playing with both Doggcatcher and Google Listen. I haven’t chosen my final podcast catcher, but the choice to push content to my mobile device is now made.
That’s a horribly long setup to the real point of this article: I have finally broken the musical cord that tied me to my desktop computer. And last year, I severed the cord related to web content browsing. For me, this mobility push has been thanks to Google and Android. For others, they are thanking Apple and iOS. But the trend is obvious: cloud-based music is yet another desktop tether that can be severed. And with cloud-based services like file storage (via Google Docs, or Dropbox or any number of other tools), I can snip yet another tether.
Think of a bundle of helium-filled balloons. I’m slowly snipping the strings that hold them down. And I think I may soon be cutting the last of the ties that hold me to my desktop computer. Once I can effectively type on a mobile device, I may be able to come out of the cave where my desktop computer is connected.
The final straw will be whenever I purchase a tablet. And when that happens, I will be free of both Microsoft and Apple. I may end up being dependent upon new vendors (like Google or Amazon). But it is just about time to change things up in my computing ecosystem. I can’t wait for yet another technology transition.
-Roo